Seymour Diamond - The Headache Godfather: The Story of Dr. Seymour Diamond and How He Revolutionized the Treatment of Headaches

Copyright 2015 by Seymour Diamond and Charlie Morey

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Qualcom Designs

Cover photo credit Linda Schwartz Photography

Print ISBN: 978-1-62914-538-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62914-980-6

Printed in the United States of America

Dedications

T o my grandchildrenBrian Diamond-Falk, Emily Diamond-Falk, Max Barack, Michael Diamond Barack, Jacob Barack, and Katelynn Barackand to my great-grandchildrenZevon and Oliver Diamond-Falk.

Seymour Diamond

T o my wife, Amy Diamond, who volunteered me for this project when she told her parents, Charlie can write Dads book! and whos had confidence in me for everything Ive ever attempted. And to headache sufferers around the world who have benefited from Seymours efforts to ease their pain. As theyll learn from reading this book, it didnt come easily.

Charlie Morey

Table of Contents

Foreword

May there never develop in me the notion that my education is complete, but give me the strength and leisure and zeal, continually to enlarge my knowledge.

Maimonides

T he life of Seymour Diamond, M.D., and his myriad accomplishments parallels the development of headache as a specialty and scientific pursuit. He arrived on the scene at the right time and with the right skills, and propelled the field of headache into the modern scientific era. His abilities are and were multidimensional: he revolutionized the care of the headache patient; he enlarged the armamentarium used in treating the headache patient; he created the settings in which care could be maximized; he revolutionized the approach to educating community physicians, specialists, and allied health personnel; he was a pioneer in patient and family education; and he energized the field of clinical research in headache. Dr. Diamond recognized the social, medical, financial, and emotional burden of headache long before his peers. In addition to all of the above skills, he brought his passion, his enormous energy, and his single-minded focus to the field of headache. These attributes allowed him to improve the lives of patients suffering with headache and decrease their disabilitylocally, nationally, and internationally.

To help the patient with disabling headache was his major focus. His innovations in this area are numerous. He was among the first to develop an outpatient clinic utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to treatment. Dr. Diamond recognized that some patients needed a more intensive treatment regimen, and he developed the premier hospital-based inpatient program recognizing that the most severely affected patients needed to be removed from their home setting and approached with a combination of emotional understanding, medications, treating withdrawal symptoms from narcotics, counseling, recreational therapy, physical therapy, and patient/family education. Indeed, this innovative approach to acute headache treatment brought relief to thousands. In order to accomplish this mission, he waged a constant battle with the managed health care companies. He proved that his innovative program was effective and cost-effective. His model is now recognized around the world as a necessary component in providing total care to the most resistant headache patients.

Dr. Diamond entered the area of pharmaceutical research with gusto. He saw this as a way to improve patient care. He partnered with companies to bring newer medications in a timely fashion to his patients. The earliest papers utilizing indomethacin, propranolol, and the tricyclic antidepressants to treat headache were authored by Dr. Diamond. His scientific investigations, his intellectual curiosity into the pathophysiology of headache, and his exploration of its clinical variation were pioneering. In addition, the clinical descriptions of unusual headache types were brought to the attention of fellow physicians by Dr. Diamond. Review of his curriculum vitae demonstrates hundreds of contributions to the literature advancing knowledge in the areas of patient care and pharmacology.

Dr. Diamond has always felt that his expertise needed wider dissemination in order to help a wider population of headache sufferers. His semiannual review courses for practicing physicians have impacted thousands of clinicians who brought newer medical advances home to their patients. His generosity with his time and experience is widely known. He helped found the National Headache Foundation, which enhances the dissemination of headache information to thousands of patients. He continues to work on behalf of the public, patients, and physicians to improve outcomes.

He was among the first of the adult headache specialists to recognize that children were not little adults and that their headaches were a specialized field of medicine. Dr. Diamond always included separate pediatric topics in his postgraduate courses. On a personal note, he inspired and encouraged me and my pediatric colleagues to develop this area of expertise. These efforts brought focus to the field of childrens headache.

His sensitivity to the emotional aspects of headache is legendary. His focus on depression and its treatment as a component of headache therapy was very important. Dr. Diamond was a pioneer in what is now called C.A.M. (Complementary and Alternative Medicine). His work emphasized the value of biofeedback as a therapeutic modality that could modulate pain.

His contributions to the field of headache have been recognized and acclaimed nationally and internationally. Dr. Diamond was the first recipient of the Lovshin Lectureship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and served as president of the American Association for the Study of Headache, which is now called the American Headache Society. The AHS also presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to him in 1999.

His recognition that the education of patients, allied healthcare providers, and physicians could improve the lot of tens of thousands of patients was one of his major contributions. He actively worked on behalf of the patient, the public, and physicians so that headache could receive wider recognition. Dr. Diamond generously gave of his time and treasure to aid these efforts, and was a spokesperson for headache in the national media.

His organizational skills are unequaled. He personally organized postgraduate courses to spread the word about headache and improve care. These efforts were recognized locally, nationally, and internationally. His kindness and concern, always putting the welfare of his patients first, earned him the title of Mr. Headache.

This book allows readers to both understand Dr. Diamonds contributions to the field of headache and integrates his accomplishments in the history of headache as a medical specialty. His hundreds of articles, multitude of books, thousands of presentationsboth lay and scientificand numerous honors and awards cement his position in the Headache Hall of Fame.